I’m feeling a need to make a statement about AI with regard to therapy. A lot of people have misgivings about the loss of jobs AI is causing and will continue to likely cause. Initially I have had no fear about it replacing trained therapists. But I have noted some concerns growing about it from some stories I have seen online, and my silence on the matter might not be the way to go.
A few examples I’ve seen that have sounded an alarm bell: a person suing because their AI encouraged a mass shooting, another encouraging suicide, and a few people using AI therapy and getting feedback that while technically correct from one type of therapy, was completely inappropriate to what would have been helpful had the person been in the care of a trained therapist using the same techniques.
I will recognize that for some people going to therapy is not accessible or is cost-prohibitive and AI can offer an option. My concern there is I do not think the technology is there yet and I have my doubts it ever will be.
Why do I say this? In my experience, both as a client and as a clinician, it is the human connection and witnessing that does BY FAR the most healing. The specific techniques are a distant second. We are human beings, we make mistakes. We can learn and adapt to overcome. Many of us have shame about a thing that happened and the antidote to that is compassion and taking on a responsibility that is appropriate for the situation, sometimes that means realizing when something was not our fault, and other times when it was our fault and how to make a change for the better.
AI might make a person feel safer to talk about something they are deeply ashamed of, but part of healing is facing that fear and confronting it. This act grows courage and lessens fear, which grows resilience.
Specifically with the modalities I use, SE and EMDR, I am tracking body language, rate and tone of speech, tension in the body, triggers and how strongly they are manifesting, and being present and intervening appropriately when a person is overwhelmed and dissociated. None of which a computer can do.
I saw a social media post that I thought was a beautiful comment on AI that I will paraphrase here, “Thanks to AI I have now learned that souls do in fact exist, I listened to music made from AI and could feel the emptiness versus an amazing musician.” In a way this describes the experience one can have at a great live concert, there will be slight differences in the performance which makes it special, if I wanted a perfect performance that’s the exact same, I could just stay home and listen to the recorded song.
Side note: these are also the same reasons reading self-help books and watching videos don’t quite measure up to in person therapy work. AI, in my opinion, has a tendency to tell the person what they want to hear. That is not support! Support should include accountability and help the person see other options they may not have seen as well as recognize our own defenses as they arise and challenging them when necessary.
Could AI ever really get what it feels like for a mother to embrace her newborn child when she didn’t think she could conceive? Could it get the sense of pride a father could have seeing his child grow to be the adult both he and he/she/they wanted to be? Could it explain the love of a dog/cat lover’s feelings the moment they first saw their new best friend? Or the loss of any of those examples?
Hell no.
So how in the universe could it meet you when it really counts?
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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